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| I like coltrane and some of the older jazz stuff....but how about the new guys? |
Someone I know recommended David Sanborn to me; I tried the CD "The Best of David Sanborn" only to be horribly dissapointed. I was expecting something in the spirit of classic jazz -- I would have been alright even with fusion, but no -- this was that homogenized, new-age-esque stuff. Many of the songs I could imagine hearing in an elevator, which is, needless to say, a telltale sign of a recording that I wish I hadn't bought. Perhaps David Sanborn's other CD's are less like this, with a more traditional or even fusion-like feel. To tell you the truth, the only song I actually liked was the only acceptable, groovin' one -- built on the blues scale -- called "Over and Over," but it still was below some of my all time favorite tunes from John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, and Joe Henderson.
I also recently bought two modern jazz CD's by Martin, Medeski and Wood called 'Uninvisible' -- and another CD by Herbie Hancock called 'Future 2 Future.'
'Uninvisible' is a good CD, though it gets sort of boring after a while because it lacks melodic contour and climax -- sometimes it sounds like it's just a bunch of jazz musicians playing with a complex beat machine and a turntable -- although other times some of their beats+melodies are really quite cool. The tunes on this recording are relatively good interpretations of modern jazz/fusion, for they aren't too homogenized or "smooth-jazz" esque. And while I could still call this CD jazz, for those of you looking for jazz with any sort of a 'traditional' feel, I still wouldn't recommend looking here. All in all, this is a decent CD, though after a while I start to look at my watch and start yearning for Coltrane.
Herbie Hancock's "Future 2 Future" is, well, bizarre. It's not very jazz-like, almost more pop oriented. Though this sort of thing isn't all that unusual for Herbie Hancock, because earlier in his career he release some pop tunes that topped the charts. Personally, I really like his actual
jazz stuff better that he did earlier in his career, like "Watermelon Man" and such . . .
All in all, there are some great modern jazz artists (like The Dave Holland Quintet), however some of them (lthe CD of David Sanborn that I heard) are IMO not the best nor seem to be in any way even vaguely remnicent of traditional jazz style. Some other great new artists are Joshua Redman (he has sort of a Coltrane-esque playing style) along with many others.
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Originally posted by john_jcb
One of the benifits of living in the Chicago area. There is a constant suppy of very talented people performing at a number of venues. There are some very fine Jazz performances around the city this Summer. |
You probably already know about the Symphony Center. They have jazz performances in the winter on Friday evenings featuring great artists, some of which are very well known. I saw Count Basie at one, and a collaboration of great trumpeters in a quintet called "Trumpet Summit," a newer African-Jazz group called "Kherpa." I missed a few of the other great players that played there, like McCoy Tyner, Irakere, Chucho Valdez, Sonny Rollins, and Joshua Redman. For soem of the performances, we even had box-seats! It was awesome! Chicago really does have benefits if you're a jazz fanatic.
